As a dedicated traditional journal keeper for years, I wasn’t ready for the time-crunch the quarter-system would put me in. With so much to do and so little time, journaling always found itself last on my priority list. Soon, I had stopped journaling altogether and that meant I did not actively process anything happening in my life. All days became a blur and everything blended into one, until I discovered the ultimate all-in-one solution: daily logging.
What is logging?
Logging is exactly what the name suggests: a log of your day. As you go about your day (or at the end) make a physical list of all that you did or everything that happened. This can include classes you attended, work shifts, hanging out with friends or just watching Netflix while at home. The key focus is on observing the happenings of the day and writing them down.
What makes logging better than other forms of journaling, especially for a busy person?
Logging takes the pressure off a strict format in journaling and can be customized on a day to day basis for a busy individual. This flexibility allows it to combine the best elements of bullet, gratitude and traditional journaling.
While bullet journaling focuses planning for the day ahead and checking boxes, logging makes you notice the other checked boxes that would have been overlooked otherwise. This is especially important in making each monotonously busy day memorable, as it creates room for observing the tiniest of happenings.
Gratitude journaling, while reflective, has an expected emotional response associated with the contents of the list. This can drive an individual to overlook the negative incidents or avoid journaling altogether on a particularly bad day. Logging adopts a more neutral perspective, with no emotions required for an activity or event to make it to the list. One can choose to describe the emotional experience for a listed item if they want to dive into it, but that is not a requirement.
Finally, traditional journaling is time-intensive and requires one to sit down and actively work through the memorable events as well as the associated emotions. This type of time is hard to carve out in a busy quarter-system life, so logging can help take the pressure off to write three to five pages a day about your deepest darkest thoughts and just simplify it to a list of everything that was done. It is lower commitment and easier to accommodate into your schedule.
So, How can you start logging today?
- Get a physical notebook; tiny ones might be easier to carry around if you’re planning on logging throughout the day. I keep a small notebook in my bag to log when I have a pause for 15-20 minutes in my day. You can log on your phone or laptop, but having a physical token of the record of your life allows you to process how much time has passed between entries, which is hard to recreate digitally.
- Start listing whatever you want, whenever you want! I usually log physical changes to my location (such as attending class, going to work and mini-trips), time spent with friends, chores and just about anything random that I observed myself doing during the day. Sometimes I scribble into my log when on campus, but the bulk of my logging happens in the evenings after dinner. Somedays my log is half a page long, non-descriptively listing three activities, and other days it is five pages long, with a discussion of my emotions incorporated in it. This flexibility is why I have been so consistent with it since I started.
When you’re busy, all your days can start to feel like a blur. Don’t worry, you’re not alone — I feel exactly the same way. Logging will help you track and focus on the memorable aspects of your day!